Many carriers have been created for special uses through the years. Typical of these are bags for skis, photographers' equipment, food for nursing babies, and the like. New opportunities create new bag designs. Outdoor sporting events have created an unique need for a bag that provides: identity with the team and large capacity for binoculars, blankets, seat cushions, rain gear, flasks, noise makers, etc. Additionally, the bag must fold into a small volume when its contents are emptied. It must also be capable of protecting its contents under all weather conditions.
Many bags have been designed using the using plastics, synthetic fibers, natural fibers, and combinations of these fibers. Cloth bags are less than ideal because they get soiled rapidly in normal usage. Bags of synthetic fibers work well and soil less rapidly but do not protect their contents during driving rainstorms or the like. Plastic bags also have their problems; for example, they can become very stiff in cold weather and may crack or tear more easily. Further, plastics generally tend to tear at points of stress, i.e., where the handles are attached and to stretch unacceptably at such points, particularly in hot weather.
The solution to these problems is the use of a combination of a cloth bag and a plastic bag. The cloth provides the needed strength, and the plastic provides the needed protection.
The closest analogy to the bags designed for use by spectators at sporting events is probably shopping bags. Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 3,349,992 issued to R. T. Skinner describes a combination of a plastic bag with a shopping bag where the plastic bag is inverted and has two slots cut in the "bottom" of the bag through which the handles of the shopping bag project when the plastic hood is slipped over the shopping bag. This, however, does not protect the normal rattan or jute handles of commercial shopping bags which tend to weaken when wet. The bag of this invention overcomes even that problem.
In shipping materials such as cement, the goods are sewn into inner multi-layer bags of paper or plastic-treated paper and an outer layer of plastic under conditions wherein materials within the bag would destroy the plastic and external moisture would destroy the paper. Similarly, chemicals of various types have been placed in plastic bags which act as liners for fiber pack drums. In still other uses, the material to be shipped is placed within a plastic liner and an outer paper bag. In some situations there may be still another external plastic layer.